en route

As I write this, I am sitting in Atlanta. I had been under the impression that pretty much all major airports had wireless internet access by now, but I found no evidence of it in either Pittsburgh or Atlanta. Either that or the driver on this borrowed laptop is misconfigured; since I don't have wireless at home and was specifically told not to use it at work with this machine, I had no way to test that. Oh well. If the access in the hotel is wired, as I suspect, then it's not much of an issue. (Added later: it's wired.)

So, wave hi to dragontdc; sorry I visited your fair city without actually making contact.

My flights today are on AirTran, whose web site would not allow me to print a boarding pass from home. Fooey on them. The first kiosk I tried was broken (the "E" key was broken and was a required component of my confirmation number). But the lines were short, so no biggie.

In Pittsburgh I was the lucky winner of detailed security scrutiny. That hand scanner sure is sensitive. I wasn't all that surprised that it beeped on my belt buckle -- just a minimal buckle, mind, without big ornaments or the like -- but was surprised that it beeped on the (metal) button on my pants and on my (small, thin) necklace. Oh, and there was something in my wallet that it didn't like, though I still don't know what. (No, my wallet does not have a zippered or snapped compartment. It's really just a billfold with some pockets for credit cards.)

There's a new (to me) addition to the takeoff/landing spiel. Seatbelts, blah blah... tray tables, blah, blah... window blinds? They care that the blinds be up? I wonder why. By the time someone standing in the aisle can look out the side windows and see an oncoming plane, it's too late.

Ah, there's no wireless because they sell network access (via a data port) for 50 cents per minute. Ok, that's fair. (Added later: but it's a phone jack, not a network plug.)

Apropos of nothing, I've been reading (over Shabbat and on the plane) Jewish Living: A Guide to Contemporary Reform Practice by Rabbi Mark Washofsky. Very interesting read, emphasizing many of the same points I do about Reform being a serious movement, and giving reasons behind some of the decisions where reform has deviated from the norm (such as the so-called "patrilineal descent" and getting rid of the second day of yom tov). I haven't finished it yet, but so far I would recommend it to anyone who wants to know what Reform is really about.

SIGDOC, first evening

Tonight at the opening reception I spent some time talking with Bob Newman. In doing the "so what does your company do?" thing, I told him about CoMotion and CPOF and he seemed very interested. He sees what we do as "design of communication" -- not all communication involves words, after all, and the principles that apply to organizing data are sometimes the same ones that apply to organizing documentation. This is a good point. (Unbeknownest to me, the "DOC" in "SIGDOC" actually changed from "documentation" to "design of communication" a couple years back, in part to attract a broader audience.)

It turns out that Bob is the chair of next year's conference, and the theme is "documenting and designing for pervasive information". He would like to see a paper submission from us. Now maybe he says that to all the writers, but it's worth thinking about. (And the conference doesn't conflict with the high holy days next year either, so I could theoretically go.)

After the reception a couple guys from SAS in Raleigh and I headed out for dinner. One of them had been to Memphis before, so we let him guide us to Beale Street. It's hard to tell from just tonight's data points, but my tentative conclusion is that vegetarians are just SOL in this town, or at least on Beale Street. (I haven't looked into the hotel restaurant yet.)

The hotel is pretty spiffy, especially for the price ($95 plus tax). I have a two-room suite with microwave and fridge, though there are no dishes so I assume the microwave is intended for frozen dinners or something. There's a TV in each room (which is two more than I need but there's plenty of space so I don't care), and free network access (wired) in the room. The one downside is that my room is just off the lobby and it's noisy in the outer room, but the noise doesn't seem to carry into the bedroom so I don't care all that much.

This laptop is much worse than the one I borrowed this summer in one respect: legibility. More specifically, I can't find any controls, physical or digital, that affect contrast and brightness, and the defaults are harsh (to me). Dell laptop running XP Professional, in case anyone's got ideas. (The "native" resolution is also high for such a small screen, so I've got fonts cranked up both at the OS level and in my apps. But still, the brightness makes it hard to use.)